


Castle Ghost

by shulkie



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Fluff, M/M, Side YumiKuri, Supernatural Elements, side erumike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-15 15:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4612086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shulkie/pseuds/shulkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King’s knight Levi Ackerman comes across a mysterious, seemingly abandoned castle. Eren and friends deal with a meticulous, neat-freak ghost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments! They mean a lot to me!
> 
> This is a silly fun fantasy fic. I hope you enjoy!

The castle looked empty enough. Yet the gate was ajar, almost as if inviting company. Outside the walls, vines and thick briar patches nearly obscured the structure, but there was no disguising that towering spire. As Levi entered, the first thing he noticed was that the tangled mess of branches did not extend into the interior. In fact, the courtyard was well groomed as if the castle had several goats and cattle to attend to it. The second thing he noticed was that there were lights on inside and the thought of roaring fires and warm candles made Levi clutch his tattered cloak tighter. And yet…the roads to this castle had been rocky and overridden and there was an aura of silence placed over the hold like a heavy veil. Levi could hear none of the telltale signs of castle life. No chickens, no cooks, no washerwomen, no young nobles playing with their wooden swords in the sparring ring. No one traveled here and yet, there had to be people living within the confines of the impressive keep.

“Hello?” he called.

He walked around the stables and froze when he came across a person.

“Hello?” he asked cautiously. “As one of the King’s knights I was hoping I may call on your hospitality. My horse fell lame in the woods and—“

The body failed to move. Levi thought it must be a man from the back of his head and he had knelt to examine the shoe of a horse that also stood rigidly still.

“Can you hear me?” Levi asked, walking around to the front.

They were statues. They had to be statues. And yet, they looked so lifelike. Levi squatted down to look at the man’s face. They were both painted so realistically, Levi could see the amber color of his eyes and his equine nose that rivaled that of the mare he was treating. Levi stood up and ran his fingers over the mare, expecting to tangle his fingers in a mane but finding it hard and cold. He knocked against it. No wooden horse here. It was made of stone.

Levi suppressed a shiver and continued on in search of life. He came across more statues outside. A shield maiden practicing with her heavy broadsword against a dummy, her face set in fierce concentration. The sword within her grip was real steel, Levi found, as was her armor, and the scarf she wore draped around her neck was a soft wool. Yet her flesh and hair and nails were all stone. He made his way through the stables. Every single horse and creature was stone. Levi even found a mouse working its way into a bag and it too was stone. Levi entered the castle through the kitchens and found another statue, her fingers kneading into bread in front of a burning hot oven. Hunger overtook him and he grabbed a loaf. It was warm and fresh. He bit into it and closed his eyes in appreciation.

What bizarre person had taken the time to sculpt and carve these statues and paint them so lifelike? Not a single one had flaking paint and all were busy completing tasks of normal castle life. Levi found many more statues. A valet polishing silver goblets for the table. A scholar or scribe busy cataloging an impressive library. A physician busy administering to a patient. Levi trailed to the largest room of the castle and found the woman who must have been the lady of this hold, busy brushing her blonde hair in front of a mirror and preparing for bed.

Levi continued wandering through the castle, grabbing a lit lantern, until he found himself ascending the spiral staircase to the large tower. The sun had set now and the stars lit up the moonless sky. Levi craned his head and looked above. He had shelter, he had food, and he could see to his joints. His body was exhausted. Three days with no food, one day without water and now here was a paradise. He could take his rest and refill his pack before moving on.

He’d need to see to his armor. His fingers were cold and stiff and the fasteners to the plate had become rusted shut by a week’s worth of rain. He shivered as the breeze from the cool night air hit him and looked out. What a beautiful keep. And to think it was being cared for by a madman who liked to carve human likenesses out of stone.

Levi sucked in a breath when he saw a figure up in the watch tower. He approached it slowly before realizing it was another statue. He held the lantern up close to the stone figure. The statue gazed out at the night sky with a serene, contemplative expression. Maybe the person who carved these statues wasn’t crazy. Maybe they were just lonely. Maybe they saw a beauty in the world and simply had to create it. Looking at the bright green eyes of the stargazing statue, the person who made him certainly had to have a lightness within their soul to create something so breathtaking.

Levi trudged down the steps and found a clean feather bed. As he fixed the goose feather pillows he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his sword around to challenge the stranger. A cat, dark as night jumped from the floor to a beautifully carved dresser and watched him, licking her paw.

“Oh,” he said to the cat who looked around, disinterested by Levi’s presence. “You know I think you and I might be the only two real creatures here.”

He tried to scratch its chin, but it hissed and growled lowly at him. He couldn’t take off all of his armor and he was still somewhat skittish in the odd castle, so he fell into bed, clutching his sword next to him. Within moments he heard the familiar sound of a cat plopping into bed and curling up on the pillow next to him, purring madly, thankful for a warm body.

When he woke, the fire in the room was only coals, but he was warm for the first time in weeks. The cat was nowhere to be found. He rose and groaned when his back and joints ached. He’d need to find the baths later, but for now, breakfast.

He stepped out into the hallway and froze when he found a finger in his face. It was the statue from last night standing there in the hallways pointing at some unseen visitor. Levi walked around it and stood next to the man, trying to see what he saw. Whoever was doing this must know of his presence then. Well it was time for Levi to show he wasn’t afraid.

<*>

“AH!” Christa screamed, dropping the hairbrush.

“My lady?” barked her guard on the other side of the door. “What is it?”

When Christa didn’t answer, Reiner barged in.

“I just saw the most frightful face!” Christa sobbed into Reiner’s large chest. “Right there in my mirror! Like some kind of an elf or goblin!”

“Did you see it? Did you see it?” Connie asked, rushing by. “It walked right by and touched the horses, it took Jean forever to calm them down!”

“What in the—Connie!” Reiner shouted after him.

Mikasa ran by, sword drawn.

“I had it! I nearly had it,” she growled lowly.

“You stay here, my lady,” Reiner instructed Christa.

“You guys, you won’t believe what I just saw!” Eren shouted, hopping down the spiral staircase.

“We believe you,” Mikasa said, still stalking about agitatedly.

“It was hideous,” said Christa, coming up behind them, folding a dressing robe over her nightclothes.

“It was scary,” Armin said, having rushed from the library.

“It was amazing,” Eren sighed, eyes bright.

“Well what was it?” Reiner asked.

“THERE!” Eren shouted, pointing.

News of the ghost traveled quickly throughout the castle. A gathering was convened to discuss possible ways to do away with their spectral visitor. Some said its eyes glowed bright red, others said it had the face of a man but the body of a goat. Yet all agreed that it was short.

“There was no ghost!” Marlowe explained loudly. “You all just got yourselves excited over nothin’!”

“We all saw it!” Jean exploded. “Lady Christa saw it! Are you calling her a liar?”

“No I…my apologies my lady,” Marlowe said, flushing and sitting back down.

“That’s quite alright,” Christa said demurely. “I only saw it for a moment, it flashed in my mirror and then was gone.”

“It scared the horses!” Jean snapped angrily. “That ain’t a good omen!”

“More like your face scared them!” Marlowe said heatedly and Eren laughed in appreciation, Marco made to step between them.

“It could have been a ghost, but I thought it was a man, he came at me with a raised blade,” Mikasa explained quietly to the group.

“It ate my bread!” Sasha cried.

Everyone winced. Sasha’s claims did little to help the case for the ghost’s existence.

“What?” she asked turning around on all of them. “I’m not lying.”

“Armin saw it,” Annie said quietly.

All eyes turned towards Armin since he and Doctor Jaeger were the trusted individuals to go to for information.

“I saw…something,” Armin started and Marlowe groaned. “I can’t say what it was, but I honestly thought it was Connie and Eren playing a trick on me again.”

“You know, that’s a good point,” Reiner said seizing upon that angle. “How do we not know it wasn’t just another one of your pranks?”

“Because I would take credit for it!” Connie said, rolling his eyes. “It’s a really good prank!”

“Pastor Nick, do you have any words of caution for us about our ghost?” Christa asked, folding her hands into her lap primly.

Pastor Nick cleared his throat the way he always did before he began a sermon and Eren groaned loudly. Mikasa kicked him under the table.

“We know nothing about this spirit. Perhaps he is just a traveler who has gotten lost on his way to the gates of our maker. He may just be passing through. We must pray that his visit is short and swift. Yet if he is a malevolent spirit we ask the maker to protect us and keep us from harm. Let us pray.”

This was followed by twenty minutes of intense praying.

“I don’t know how it isn’t a malevolent spirit,” Hannes said loudly when finally poked awake by his wife after Pastor Nick finished. “Sure sounds evil to me.”

“We know not the ways of spirits, nor is it our place to know,” Pastor Nick said mournfully.

“I saw it,” said Eren excitedly. “It was beautiful.”

Everyone regarded him with surprise for a moment.

“Doctor Jaeger, your own child has seen the spectre, what are your thoughts?” Pastor Nick turned to him.

“I think…” said the physician, putting his hand to his mouth in thought. “We should wait and see.”

<*>

Levi decided his first order of business was to fix the clasp on his armor. He wandered down to the blacksmith’s and grabbed a file. The statue of the blacksmith hunched over his burning fire, beads of glass sweat running down his face. Levi found he was becoming all too accustomed to the strange statues. He filed furiously at the section by his shoulder until he felt the clasp pop. He struggled out of his plate and it hit the ground with a clang.

“Oh, that feels good,” he groaned, rubbing at the sores where the armor had rubbed his skin raw.

He wandered over to where a washer woman was busy with her chores, her painted blue eyes passively viewing the warm water she soaked her hands in. The cloth in her hand was real and showed no signs of fraying. Levi thought the person or persons who positioned them must take care to move the statues each day, but how did they do this without being seen?

Levi stripped off his clothes and set about scouring them in the lye, then pinned them to the line to dry. He tried on dried garments until he found a blue doublet that fit him—well it was tight in the shoulders and arms, but it would have to do. He passed by the sparring ring again and found only one occupant, the cook drawing her bow. He tapped the bodkin point on her arrow and found it was exceedingly sharp. Judging by her target she was a good shot. He moved on. Levi made his way to the kitchens and grabbed several sausages and bread and cooked them in a skillet over the kitchen fire before sitting at the main table where the shield maiden from yesterday was busy working on her needlepoint with the lady of the keep. Both had their heads bowed over their work and Levi leaned over to examine it. She was busy stitching a name into the back of a shirt. Levi squinted. His eyes weren’t what they used to be and he’d never been too good with his letters but he made out E-R-E-N. Eren. The moss green shirt looked a great deal like the same one his stargazer had been wearing. Odd. Levi shrugged and grabbed a napkin to wipe his mouth.

He cleared his plate and passed by a curly haired statue, busy watching her companion clean out the fire grate. Levi belched loudly and immediately excused himself. Not that it mattered. The statues didn’t seem to care.

He located the baths in the west wing of the castle. The water had already been drawn and hot rocks dropped inside to heat it and a figure was standing with a towel about his waist, readying to enter the steaming water. Levi stripped and hung the borrowed clothes so they wouldn’t become soiled, then grabbed a towel. All other hooks and bars were occupied with the shirtless statue’s clothes.

“Here. Give me a hand,” Levi joked, draping his towel over the statue’s arm.

He slipped into the water and gave an audible groan.

<*>

After the initial sighting of the ghost, people started to feel embarrassed. Perhaps they had all overreacted? Weeks flew by and Eren forgot about the mysterious face he’d seen, too focused on training.

Yet odd things kept happening. Bert’s tools would vanish only to reappear in a completely different place than where he’d put them. Armin’s doublet disappeared and then reappeared in the baths. And then, one day when Mikasa was busy battering Eren’s shield, they heard Annie shriek.

Mind you, they only knew it was Annie’s scream when they ran and found her clasping her face in terror. No one had ever heard Annie make so much as a peep before, not when confronted with a hairy spider (which she quashed under her slipper without batting an eye) or when Reiner dropped a jumping frog down her shirt in the middle of another sermon from Pastor Nick. Yet there she was mouth agape, holding her pruned fingers to her pink cheeks.

“I saw it!” she gasped. “I really saw it!”

“What did it look like?” Connie urged. “Was his face grotesque and bloated? Were his eyes bulging?”

“Well I only saw the, er…lower half,” Annie explained, turning her head to the side.

“You mean his…?” Eren asked, pointing a finger downward.

She nodded.

All of the boys contemplated this, hands on hips and faces scrunched up.

“What did it look like?” Eren asked finally.

“Eren…” Marco shook his head.

“I gotta admit, I’m curious too,” Jean agreed.

“I mean, our ghost is pretty small, right?” Connie asked. “So naturally…”

“Yeah,” Annie agreed.

“Wait was it, you know,” Jean said, holding his wooden sword out by his hip at an angle.

“No.”

“Well then you can’t say that it’s small!” Jean cried, throwing his hands up in the air. “Some guys need a little bit of… _motivation_ before you can see what size they are.”

“Sure they do, Jean,” Eren said, trying very hard to keep a straight face.

“I’m just sayin’, don’t call a guy small until you’ve seen his…sword at its mightiest, you know?”

“I mean, it was proportional to his size,” Annie backpedaled quickly because Jean appeared very upset. “I’m sure it was average.”

“There you go, Jean,” Eren said, patting him on the back. “You’re average.”

“Shut up!” Jean shoved him off and stormed away.

It was another two weeks before the next ghost sighting.

“Oh! I killed him! Oh god!” Sasha cried. “I can’t look, oh god he’s dead!!”

It took them a whole hour to calm her down. When she finally did, she admitted she had been practicing her archery, which surprised none of them as Sasha was a crack shot and in competition beat out all takers. While practicing, Armin—or at least she had thought it was Armin by his blue doublet—ran in front of her arrow right at the moment she released her hold on the string. It was a fatal hit. It took her some convincing to believe that Armin wasn’t dead and only by placing his hands on her face did she finally sob in relief.

“Armin isn’t that stupid to step between you and a target,” Connie said soothingly, rubbing her back in circles.

“Or bread,” Armin said out of the corner of his mouth.

“I guess,” Sasha nodded sniffing. “Oh I was so scared.”

And there were other incidents. Hitch swore the ghost appeared to her and breathed flames.

“The stench were rank,” Hitch told an enthralled group. “Like hell itself spewed forth sulfur. Like Sasha after stew night.”

“I was right there and I didn’t see nothin’,” Marlowe crossed his arms over his chest.

The ghost’s methods were mysterious and hard for anyone to predict. For example, it seemed to take items and food. The items would reappear but the food would not.

“I thought ghosts don’t eat food,” Eren said.

“That’s not exactly true,” Armin said, holding a book. “I’ve been reading up on ghosts and they will consume the flavor of a meal, but cannot physically eat it.”

“So…it’s absorbing the flavor and then what? Burying it?”

And then other times it would do perplexing things. Like sweep out a chimney grate or clean dishes. Hitch started charging people a half pence to hold the ghost’s plate until Reiner forced her to knock it off. People began blaming the ghost for everything. Eren lied and said the ghost stole his chalk when Shadis asked him where it was. Shadis didn’t believe him and hung a slate that read “CHEEKY LIAR” around his neck for the rest of class.

However, they were forced to admit the ghost was violent when it attacked Marco. Marco had been preparing for a bath, which was his favorite time of day as he could meditate on the day’s happenings and various things like why was the sky blue or what the King must be like (Eren wasn’t sure what this part had to do with the story, but he didn’t interrupt Marco). When suddenly, the ghost began flinging towels at him. It scared him so badly he had run down in just his towel and not much else, shocking the ladies who were busy with their embroidery.

When they investigated the bath they discovered the bath drained and the towels neatly stretched across the line to dry. Not only that, but Marco’s clothes were carefully folded in a neat pile.

“This is a very odd ghost,” Eren said, staring at the scene.

“I think we might be dealing instead with a poltergeist,” Armin said, frowning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi tries to save the people of the castle from...from...what is he saving them from again? RIGHT! The curse!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments! They mean a lot to me!

Levi spent the rest of the day fixing his armor. He grabbed a strip of leather and fixed the clasps, then began buffing and polishing it until it gleamed. He set it down, somewhere where it wouldn’t get dust on it, then rubbed at his sore hands.

He fell asleep again in the same bed and the cat came to visit him again at night.

<*>

“I don’t know what you’re trying to show me,” Armin said.

“He slept in my bed,” Eren said pointing.

“How do you know?” Armin asked skeptically.

“Because I got out of bed this morning and was running late for class and when I came back someone had made the bed _for_ me.”

The black cat hopped up on the bed and began kneading the covers.

“No, get off! Scram! Get out of here!” Eren said shooing it and it hissed before disappearing under the frame.

“Maybe Mikasa made your bed,” Armin suggested.

“I’m telling you, Arm’, it was the ghost.”

<*>

Once again, when he woke, Levi found all of the statues had moved mysteriously overnight. His stargazer was busy getting his butt kicked out in the training ring and everyone else was attending to their daily duties.

Now that his armor was repaired and his body was on its way to recovery, Levi decided he needed to plan his journey. And for that he’d need maps. And for maps he’d need to visit the library. His favorite scribe was there with a book in his arms, busy shelving a tome someone had already read.

Levi investigated along the shelves and pulled out anything that seemed relevant, stacking them in a tall pile on the floor.

<*>

“The ghost is in the library!” Eren hissed at Mikasa.

Mikasa grabbed her sword, which she’d been carrying on her person ever since the arrival of the ghost and joined the group gathering at the entryway.

“What’s it doing?” Connie hissed at Armin.

“I don’t know,” Armin confessed.

There were books flying off the shelves, some forming piles, others hovering in the air, the pages rippling as if hit by a stiff breeze. They couldn’t see the figure riffling through them, but it had to be there and moving at an alarming pace.

“Well go on Armin, go talk to it,” Reiner said, pushing Armin forward.

“Me? Why?”

“You went to college,” Annie agreed also shoving Armin.

“Uh,” Armin gulped, but took a shaky step forward. “Hello spirit!”

Another book dropped on the floor.

“Oh spirit, please grace us with your voice,” he sang out shakily.

A book flew off the shelves that Armin recognized.

“Okay, no, that is a very ancient and valuable text, don’t treat it like that!” Armin said growing annoyed. He picked it up and then another and made to store them away.

<*>

Several hours later, Levi’s eyes hurt and the wax to his candle was low.

“Let’s see, you weren’t useful, you weren’t either and I don’t even know why I grabbed you,” Levi grunted to himself.

He stared at the wall of books and realized he had no idea where he’d grabbed them from. He hated leaving a mess, but he also didn’t want to store them in the wrong place.

“Here you go,” Levi said, tipping the contents into the frozen scribe’s hands. “You do something with them.”

<*>

“You made it angry!” Eren said, picking Armin up from the floor.

They had all watched as the ghost suddenly dropped a huge stack of books on Armin.

“You think?” Armin gasped, rubbing his chest, the wind knocked out of him.

“What do you think it wants?” Eren asked.

Armin looked at the pile of books and their titles.

“These are all cartography books,” Armin explained, understanding dawning on him. “I think our ghost is looking for a map of the area, or possibly one of the castle.”

He turned around and counted the books on the shelf and then moved the staircase, finding a text he thought the spirit might want.

“Let’s give him some information about us so he isn’t so antagonistic. Now where do we put this so the ghost can find it?” Armin asked.

“It’s been sleeping in my bed,” Eren said, his ears turning a little red. “Let’s set it on my nightstand and see if he takes it!”

The book sat and gathered dust on Eren’s nightstand for days.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out how you wanted,” Armin said, patting Eren’s shoulder as Eren stared at the book one morning.

“Its fine,” Eren shrugged. “I’ll meet up with you later. I need a shave.”

He rubbed at his very sparse beard with its one visible hair and Armin suppressed a grin. Eren trailed to the bathroom and set about working up a lather. He admired his reflection and what his face would look like with a full beard and grinned before setting to work with the razor.

<*>

Levi awoke the next day with a full belly and a warm feeling as the cat snuggled up to his side. He moved her so he could get up and she swiped at him lazily. Sitting on the nightstand was a book he hadn’t noticed before.

“Huh,” he said, opening it.

It was a record of all of those who had last lived within the Castle. The last birth was nearly sixty years ago. And there were names. So many names! Mikasa Ackerman, Sasha Braus Annie Leonhardt, Bertholdt Hoover, Eren Jaeger...it went on to describe every member and Levi realized these were all of the statues. “ _Compiled by Armin Arlert, Scribe.”_ Ah so that was his blond friend in the library.

He’d read it all later, for now he needed a wash and a shave. He set about making a lather, cringing at his reflection in the mirror. Three days of cushy accommodations on feather mattresses and good food did not make up for a lifetime of hard living. There were noticeable lines under his eyes and the shadows had a decidedly haunted look. He could see how starved his body was from wandering lost in the woods. He was glad for the shave. He’d taken to shaving without aid of a mirror or lather when he grew hoary in the woods. During the worst days of the war, his beard had grown thick and silky, not coarse or curly. He remembered passing through a village and one of the children jumping up on his lap and tugging on his beard to see if it was real. She had cried and hid from him when he shaved but he had coaxed her back out with his voice and by the end of the day she rode around on his shoulders singing war songs happily.

He pressed the blade to his neck and moved slowly with the grain. He looked down to wipe the blade and when he looked back up there was a pair of green eyes staring back at him. He shouted and threw his blade against the mirror but it bounced off and onto the floor. He turned behind him but there was no one there. Slowly he picked up the blade and dared to look back in the mirror. The man in the mirror was doing the same as if equally afraid of what he might see. They stood there staring into each other’s eyes. After a moment, the man allowed his eyes to trail over the dark lines on Levi’s breast from his armor and the dark thatch of chest hair, his mouth opened slightly as he trailed those hairs lower and lower—

Levi realized his towel had shifted slightly when he’d ducked and adjusted it uncomfortably, avoiding looking at the younger man’s sun kissed chest.

“It’s you!” the man cried out happily. “You’re my ghost! I mean…you’re the ghost!”

“Huh? I’m not a ghost.”

“Well of course you are!” he shook his head as if Levi were very silly. “…Aren’t you?”

“No, you’re the ghost,” Levi explained, a line appearing between his brows. This was a great deal to take in.

The man looked incredibly offended.

“Excuse you! I am not a ghost!”

“I only see a head, I don’t see the rest of you,” Levi indicated.

The young man stepped back and turned on the spot. Unlike Levi, he wasn’t wearing a towel and Levi had to bite back a grin when he saw those pert buttocks. When Levi’s statue turned back to the mirror, his face turned down into a scowl, still hurt that Levi could possibly think he was a ghost.

“Right,” nodded Levi. “That still doesn’t prove you’re not a ghost.”

“OH!” His face lit up with an idea. “I remember Armin saying that ghosts can’t bleed.”

“Why not?” Levi asked

“I don’t know, I’m not an expert on ghosts,” he admitted.

There was a moment and the man picked up his razor and pressed it to his finger.

“Prove you’re not a ghost,” he challenged and Levi nodded. “On the count of three. One, two, _ow!_ ”

Levi held his index finger for him to see and the stranger in the mirror did the same. Looking flummoxed, the stranger put his hurt finger in his mouth and his other hand on his hip. Levi was just as lost as he was.

“Well if you aren’t a ghost, what are you?”

“I’m a knight.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and his green eyes went wide and his smile wider.

Levi didn’t know how long they talked. The man asked him question after question about what being a knight was like and how many battles he’d fought in. And in turn, Levi learned a little about his life.

“I want to be a knight,” he sighed wistfully.

“You’re a noble’s son, you could easily be a knight.”

“Really?” he asked, his eyes sparkling.

“Yes. Can I ask you something? Who carves those statues?” Levi asked.

“What statues?”

“The ones of you and your friends. Who makes them?” Levi continued.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I saw a statue of you up in the tower. You were looking at the stars.”

“Stars? No you must be mistaken. We haven’t had stars in…years.” He looked saddened by this, but also like it had only occurred to him that stars had once existed in his world, as if they were an ancient oddity like dragons or unicorns.

“You don’t have stars?” Levi couldn’t imagine a world without stars.

“Nope.”

“Where’d they go?”

“I don’t know…I never really thought about it.” He frowned then as if Levi had caused him some distress by forcing him to think about it.

The man asked Levi if he was the one who had been pulling books off the shelves and Levi nodded. Levi discovered that it had been maybe months or years since Levi first appeared to the occupants of the castle, but it was hard to get the man to narrow down a date.

“And yet you don’t look any different,” Levi pointed out. He looked the same in the mirror as he did in his statue form.

“Well…of course not.” 

“I mean, you don’t look any older.”

“Why would I?” He tilted his shaggy head of hair to the side.

“How many years have you lived here at this castle?” Levi asked.

“I don’t understand.”

“How many winters has it been since you’ve been born?” Levi tried.

“Oh we don’t get winter.”

That was perplexing.

“When was the last time you left the castle walls?”

“I can’t leave.” He shrugged.

“Where do you get all of your grain?” Levi asked suddenly. He’d seen the stores and if no one left, and judging by the road, no one but him had entered the castle in a very long time, then how had their stores not depleted yet?

“What do you mean? From the stores.”

“Yes, but where do they come from?”

“I don’t know, we don’t talk about outside.”

“Well if you want to be a knight you have to leave and head for the capital city of Trost,” Levi reminded him.

“Oh yeah.” He frowned. Even when the stranger frowned he was handsome.

“I have to go now,” Levi said as he opened his mouth to ask him a million other questions.

“Wait, why?”

“I have preparations to make before I leave tomorrow.”

“Please stay!” the man cried.

“I can’t,” Levi shook his head. “I made an oath to my King.”

The man in the mirror looked on the brink of tears, his eyes welling up.

“It’s not fair!” he blubbered, wiping at his eyes. “I want to see the outside world with you! Just because of some witch’s curse—“

“Hold on, what?”

“I want to go with you and become a knight! Just because some witch had to go and cast a curse and…THE WITCH!” he exclaimed suddenly.

“What about her?” Levi asked.

“She—we were—the curse!”

“What curse?” Levi had to raise his voice a little to get his attention because he was so excited.

“I don’t really remember.” Levi’s new friend sagged a little on the spot. “But I have to tell the others!”

He took off before Levi could get another word in.

<*>

Eren raced down the stairs shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Hey everyone! I just remembered the curse!”

“Eren, we’re in the middle of service, which you are very late for by the way,” Dr. Jaeger said, sitting his son down.

“But I remembered the curse!”

“What curse? You’re naked! What were you even doing?”

Eren flushed and he heard several girls giggle. He covered his nakedness with his hands and then grabbed a cloth holding it around his waist before continuing.

“I was talking to the ghost and then I remembered—“

“The ghost? Oh Eren, when you going to let go of that silly idea? Run upstairs and get clothes on.”

“No, I have to tell you all something very important!” Eren shouted, stamping his feet and everyone knew when Eren got like that it was best to just let him get it out of his system.

“…So go on,” Armin urged when the silence stretched on.

“I forgot,” Eren said sheepishly.

He trudged back upstairs to grab his clothes when he saw the knight in the mirror.

“Did you tell them?” asked the knight.

“Tell them what?” Eren asked, pulling on his clothes.

“About the witch’s curse?” he prompted.

Eren’s mouth dropped open and he ran down the stairs again, this time pulling his pants on. Yet by the time he got there, he had already forgotten about it. It wasn’t until he was in the baths a week later that he remembered.

“GHOST!” he shouted, racing to the mirror. “Hey ghost!”

“What?” the knight asked.

“Oh, I thought you’d left!” Eren said, relief spreading across his face. “I was gone a week!”

“What are you talking about? I just saw you! You ran away and came straight back!”

“What’s your name?” Eren asked, thinking of questions with easier answers than the ones he wanted to ask.

“Levi,” said Levi.

“Levi,” repeated Eren, his face lighting up, his tongue wiggling between his teeth like a child who has just learned a juicy secret. “I’m Eren.”

“Eren,” Levi repeated and his name felt familiar, as if he’d always known it, as if it were made for his mouth.

Eren grinned dopily at him for a few moments.

“Eren…the curse?” Levi prompted.

“What curse?” Eren asked, still smiling with that same expression.

“The witch’s curse?”

“Huh?” Eren’s forehead creased and then it hit him. “THE CURSE!”

“Yes, Eren,” Levi said dully, this being the third time now that lightning had struck the younger man.

“I need to tell the others!” Eren said, making to take off.

“Wait! Wait!” Levi called after him. “Don’t just run off again! Here, why don’t you…you need some kind of reminder when it comes to this curse business—“

“What curse?” Eren asked, wrinkling his nose. “Oh! The—“

“Yes! Now, I don’t know, tie a piece of string or something around your finger or—“

Eren quickly pulled the leather cord out from his tunic and slipped a key on.

“I’ll use the key to the tower as a reminder,” he said then beamed at Levi so proud of himself.

“Now Eren, tell me about the curse,” Levi prompted.

“I don’t really remember much about it, to be honest,” Eren said scratching the back of his neck. “We were having a party for something and…then a witch appeared…boom! Curse!”

“Did she say what the curse was or what it did?”

“Do you think you could teach me some new sword techniques?” Eren asked dreamily, leaning closer to the mirror.

“You know what Eren? I think I certainly could, maybe once this curse is lifted,” Levi said, tilting his head closer to the mirror. He was saying whatever it took to get information, but the blush that spread across Eren’s cheeks, sent a sharp pang through Levi’s chest. He realized he really did want to teach Eren new things and that his quest to figure out the mystery of the curse wasn’t just curiosity, it was because he wanted to help these people.

After all, wasn’t that why he became a knight? To help people?

“We need to tell the others,” Eren sighed, trying to hide his flushed face. “We need to remind them. They might have an idea of what to do if we just get them all in one place.”

“How are we going to do that? Every time you leave you forget about the curse!”

“What—oh right! Hm…do you think every mirror has a connection like this? Or is this one a magic mirror?”

“I couldn’t say,” Levi thought.

The mirror in the baths was large and mounted in such a way as to make it impossible for either of them to carry around.

“I know! In my mother’s wedding chest, upstairs in my room, she has smaller mirror she received as a wedding gift! Run upstairs and grab it!”

Eren took off and Levi did the same.

He dug around in the wedding chest and when he popped it back up he found he was looking at Levi’s face from an odd angle, as if Levi had dropped the mirror into his lap.

“There you are!” Eren shouted and Levi’s head lifted.

“Where were you? You were gone for hours!” Levi said, looking upset.

“I’m sorry, it was only a few minutes for me,” Eren apologized.

“That’s fine, just don’t do it again,” Levi said, uncomfortably. “I thought I lost you.”

Eren’s heart beat just a little faster then.

“Well I’m here now, let’s go tell the others.”

Eren turned around with the mirror and then Levi was gone. When he found him again a second later, Levi looked furious.

“You were gone for a half hour this time,” Levi said crankily.

“I think we need to be standing in the same place at the same time,” said Eren.

They angled toward the door and counted each footstep aloud.

“You’re still there,” Eren grinned.

“I am,” said Levi.

“It’s like we’re dancing,” Eren said as he took a step downward, the key bouncing against his chest. “Wait Levi! I remember there was dancing!”

“Dancing?”

“Yes! Right before the witch cursed us.”

They made it to the main hall.

“Everyone!” Eren shouted. “Come meet the ghost!”

It took the people of the castle some convincing, but eventually they all stood around him while he talked to Levi.

“There ain’t no one there!” Jean snapped irritably.

“Levi is real!” Eren insistent, stamping his foot on the ground.

“Then let me talk to him!” Jean held out his hand expectantly.

“No!” Eren said, holding the mirror close to his breast.

“I think,” said Dr. Jaeger. “That since the ghost chose to speak to Eren, that we should respect its wishes.”

“Thank you, Papa,” Eren said, thumbing his nose at Jean.

“Is that your father?” Levi asked.

“Yeah, he’s the physician of the keep,” Eren said. “You’ll like him, don’t worry. I just hope he likes you.”

“Me too,” said Levi seriously. “He’ll need to like me if we’re to convince him to let you come to the capital with me.”

Eren laughed, a bright bubbling noise that set Levi’s heart beating faster.

“What do we know about the curse?” asked Eren to the group.

“It happened at a party, I remember that much,” Marco said, rubbing his chin.

“What curse?” Sasha asked.

“The witch’s curse,” Connie explained to her for the fourth time.

“What witch?” she asked.

“I can’t really remember what she looked like,” Eren said. The black cat rubbed up against his legs and he nudged her away. “Get out of here you stupid cat!”

Levi looked down to see the same cat making figure eights between his ankles.

“Shoo!” he told it.

“Let me go consult the library!” Armin said. He muttered, “Witch witch witch” under his breath so he wouldn’t forget.

He ran his fingers over the spines of several ancient tomes when one book suddenly fell from the bookshelf.

“Ghost?” Armin hissed. “Is that you?”

He looked up to see the black cat licking its paw looking very satisfied with itself.

“You—“ he pointed at it. “Are a very naughty kitty.”

He bent down to pick up the book and his eyes went wide.

“I think I found it!” he raced back into the main hall.

“Found what?” Eren asked excitedly.

“A book on…um,” Armin stared at it.

“Is it to break the witch’s curse?” Eren prompted.

“The curse!” Armin smacked in forehead. “Forgetting must be part of the curse, but it is very frustrating.”

“Weren’t we celebrating Christa’s birthday?” Marco mused.

“You don’t think someone tried to curse me, do you?” Christa asked, hands clasped over her mouth in distress. “I would hate for people to have suffered because of me!”

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” Reiner reassured her.

“It says here, that one way to break a curse is for someone to kiss a princess!” Armin announced, tracing his finger along the page. “I mean, I think. I’m not exactly an expert in curses, but hey, it couldn’t hurt, right?”

“Armin says the way for you to break the curse is for you to kiss a princess,” Eren reiterated to Levi.

“I…don’t think that’s very applicable to our particular situation here,” Levi said. “Plus, there aren’t any princesses here.”

“Well…Christa is a princess…sortof, her real name is Historia Reiss,” Eren said, shrugging.

“Reiss…as in King Reiss?” Levi asked incredulously.

“Oh so you know of him,” Eren beamed.

“I—yes…” Levi nodded. Most people had heard of the King. He was the King after all.

“Who should give Christa a kiss?” Eren asked.

The cat puffed up its chest and strutted into the middle of the group.

“Well the knight, obviously,” Mikasa said and the cat yowled in protest.

“Get out of here,” Reiner said nudging it with his boot.

First Levi needed to find Christa’s statue. She was lying in bed with a peaceful serene expression on her face. As he watched her, the cat jumped up on the bed and glared at him.

“What do I do now?” Levi asked.

“Well you kiss her obviously,” Eren said, then waited. “Go on!”

“I can’t just kiss her!” Levi jumped, now visibly skittish.

“Why not?” Eren asked.

“For one, it’s rude, she’s just lying there sleeping. I can’t kiss a lady without her permission.”

“He says he needs your permission,” Eren said turning to Christa.

“He has it,” Christa waved.

Levi stared at the sleeping princess. He had once faced down an entire army, a goblin lord, and a hairy warlock but now he was confronted with something far scarier.

“Go on!” Eren urged.

“I’ve…I’ve never really kissed anyone before,” Levi confessed.

“Ohhh,” said Eren far too understandingly. “Well that’s okay, just sortof purse your lips like this and kiss!”

“What’s wrong?” Mikasa asked swiftly.

“He’s never kissed anyone before,” Eren explained out of the corner of his mouth.

“I thought he was a knight? Knights get all the chicks,” Jean said.

It wasn’t like Levi hadn’t had the opportunity to kiss someone, it’s just that it never seemed appropriate. Of course, it was very noble to kiss someone to lift a curse and he was a knight and it was his duty. He bit his lip and leaned over. The cat gave a low growl.

“This just doesn’t feel right,” Levi said agitatedly. “The knight is supposed to kiss the princess because he fell in love with her. And no offense to your princess, I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but it feels off.”

“Does it have to be the knight?” Annie asked, contemplatively. “I mean, it could just be anyone, really.”

“That’s a good point,” Armin said. “It doesn’t have to be the ghost—er knight.”

“Okay, I’ll kiss you then,” Eren said, shrugging.

“Wait, you’re going to kiss her?” Levi asked.

“Yeah, sure, why not? I’ve kissed loads of people before.”

“You have?” Levi asked, wilting a little. He then tried to pull an aloof expression. “I mean, that’s good, you should do that then.”

“Wait!” said Jean stepping between Eren and Christa. “Why does Eren get to kiss her?”

“Yeah!” Reiner boomed.

There was a flurry of activity as Reiner and Jean played rock, paper, scissors to see who had the honor while Christa tapped her foot impatiently. Reiner won and crowed. He leaned in to kiss her and the black cat flung itself at him, savaging his leg. Reiner flung it off and bumped into Eren who dropped the mirror. It fell and shattered.

“Eren?” Levi asked and the mirror cracked. “Eren?!”

<*>

Levi spent most of the night waiting in front of the mirror in the baths, holding the broken one. It became clear that Eren wasn’t returning. He had probably forgotten about the curse. He had probably forgotten about Levi.

The next morning, Levi gathered his things and his food and prepared to leave. He’d head to the capital city and come back with someone who knew how to fix curses. Of course, it was entirely possible that just as Eren and company forgot about the curse, he too might forget by the time he returned. It was also possible he might never find his way back.

Levi walked through the great hall and found Eren standing there. He’d most likely just finished breakfast and was leaving for the day. He had a somber expression on his face and a glass tear clung to his bottom lash. Levi made to brush it away, forgetting for a moment that it would never fade. It wasn’t fair, he thought. It wasn’t fair that someone so bright and full of life like Eren should be trapped like this in a stone body. Levi rested his head against Eren’s chest and slowly wrapped his arms around the stone figure. He could almost feel the heat from Eren’s body against his. If he listened hard enough he could imagine a heartbeat there. Wait. He _could_ hear a heartbeat! He lifted his head and stood on tiptoe and leaned in to see if there was breath coming from Eren’s mouth. He leaned closer until their noses were touching. He could feel air! He listened intently and then the gap between them closed.

He didn’t even realize he was kissing Eren until Eren’s hands wrapped around him and held him close.

“Pretty good for a first kiss,” Eren said when they parted.

Levi only blinked up at him in disbelief.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Eren said, brushing Levi’s hair out of his eyes.

It was all very blissful until several overeager bystanders decided to save Eren from “the ghost” by tackling Levi.

“Idiots,” observed the cat from her perch, licking a paw in disdain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Eren and Levi are together at last! And the uh...that um...the...curse! THE CURSE! is finally broken! ...isn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lord Erwin Smith (of House Smith, Commander Smith of the King's Forces, heir of the Smith estate and fortune, golden haired knight and handsome chivalrous do-gooder from the Smith provinces which is famous for the Smith pear and many other delicious fruits nourished by the Smith river) requests the services of a goggled wizard for help in finding his old teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments! They mean a lot to me!

 

“Are you the wizard?” Erwin asked, pushing into the shop.

“That’s me!” called the odd person, pulling a beaked mask off their face.

“Oh.” Erwin pulled up short, the hulking man behind him nearly stepping on his heels. “You’re not exactly what I expected.”

“Have you met many wizards?” the wizard asked, cocking their head.

“I have not.”

“Then how could you possibly know what to expect?” they asked, picking up a jar of something wriggly and setting it aside.

“My apologies,” Erwin said, sweeping his cape to the side. “I am Lord Erwin Smith of House Smith, Heir of the Smith Fortune, Commander Smith of the King’s forces.”

“Ain’t no King,” the wizard reminded him.

“Well it’s still called the King’s forces even though there isn’t a King,” Erwin explained and the wizard grunted in agreement.

Erwin rocked back and forth on his heels waiting.

“Sorry, this is the part where after I give my introduction, you would give yours,” he said, coughing slightly into his hand.

“Huh?” the wizard asked, scratching their wild hair. “I’m Hanji. The wizard.”

“Pleased to meet you, Wizard Hanji. As I said, I am Lord Erwin Smith of House Smith—“

Hanji waved their hand for him to continue and speed through the formalities.

“And I was wondering if I could purchase your services. You see—“

Hanji picked up a frightening plant and then pulled out a few dead mice from their apron pocket to feed it.

“Long ago, twenty years at least, my family housed a great knight. He was a short and awkward man, but he trained me well and if it weren’t for his tutelage I might have died. During battle we were outflanked and he managed to pull half the group to chase after him and he disappeared into the Sina Woods…” Erwin paused slightly as he watched the plant gobble up its meal.

“Ahhh,” Hanji clucked their tongue.

“He was too great a fighter to meet his end by those warriors. I believe he may have become lost in the woods.”

“As so many do,” Hanji agreed.

“But if he perished, I would like to put his remains to rest. However, I could use a wizard’s assistance.”

Hanji squinted at him.

“Why?”

“Why what?” Erwin asked.

“Why do you care so much about this man?”

“I feel it is a matter of honor that I should see to the fate of my teacher,” Erwin said straightening his back. “Also, he was a great man. He was awkward and always making disgusting jokes and whenever he caught Mike and I…”

Erwin paused searching for a word, his hand frozen motioning back to his associate lurking in the doorway.

“… _fighting_ , he would knock our heads together. He lived a hard life. I’d like to see that he is at peace.”

“What if he didn’t die and instead was a deserter,” Hanji proposed.

“Then I would offer an official pardon. I’m a very powerful lord, I can do that.”

“Why do you really want to find him?” Hanji persisted.

Erwin looked at his partner who nodded silently.

“I am on a great quest and could use his guidance,” Erwin winced.

“I’m not cheap,” Hanji said, hands on their hips.

“I pay very well,” Erwin reassured them.

Hanji grinned.

<*>

After a brief trial presided over by Christa and the elders of the castle, it was determined that Levi was not a ghost, nor was he a witch or magician or any kind of magical person. He was however, a very skilled knight and this garnered quite a bit of respect. He replaced Hannes as teacher in the sparring yard and under his guidance the young hopefuls grew stronger and honed their skill.

He spent his days fixing stances and sword attacks and when he wasn’t doing that, he tidied up his living space. They had welcomed him with open arms. Dr. Jaeger saw to his battle wounds. They insisted he rest before his trip back to the capital, which was due to happen any day now. At first, the only thing keeping him was getting his horse reshod and then it was that Mikasa wasn’t done mending his cloak, but the real thing that kept him from leaving was Eren.

Following their first passionate embrace, Eren found all sorts of reasons to steal Levi away from his chores to kiss in the tall grass where Eren would weave crowns of daisies and poppies for him to wear. One night, Eren snuck off to Levi’s quarters to show him a book.

“Armin showed it to me,” Eren said, nibbling his lip attractively.

“What is it?” Levi asked, flipping open the pages. “Oh, there are pictures…this is a very dirty book, Eren!”

“Yeah, it is,” Eren said, eyes half lidded. “Turn to page 27.”

“Oh my, how does that even work?” Levi asked, turning it to the side.

“I could show you,” Eren said, his lips finding Levi’s over the pages.

And after they were sated and spent, Levi would feel at peace. Well almost. It was like sleeping with a small pebble under his mattress. Or like a seed stuck in his tooth. There was something niggling at him.

“We should sleep,” Levi informed Eren who was very intent on going another round. “We’ll want to be up early to leave tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure I can ride a horse all day after what we just did,” Eren said humming and brushing his sweaty bangs off his forehead.

“Well the day after then,” Levi said.

Except the day after never seemed to come. It always felt like the same day. Like a very long version of the same day. Levi would be tapping Mikasa’s elbow to correct her form. After that he was back in the field with Eren. Eren set the crown over Levi’s hair and kissed him and as he did, the key slipped out from beneath his shirt. That was supposed to mean something. At night, Eren was always in his bed and they explored pages 28-32 of Armin’s dirty book. The key clung to Eren’s sweaty form and something in the back of Levi’s head sounded off. They gasped for air, staring at the ceiling and it hit him.

“THE CURSE!” Levi swore, sitting upright.

“What curse?” Eren asked, panting. “Goddamnit the curse!”

They jumped out of bed but by the time they got to the gate, they had quite forgotten about it and instead Levi found himself laughing as he plucked fireflies out of Eren’s hair. Then, it was like he blinked and they were back in the grass, Eren sticking his tongue in the corner of his mouth as he worked at the daisy chain. The key barely visible beneath his tunic.

“The curse!” Levi roared, jumping up.

“Oh right! The curse!” Eren remembered.

He’d had enough of curses. This time he marched straight for the gate, Eren close on his heels. When he reached the gate, he stopped. When he had first come across the seemingly abandoned castle, the gate had been wide open, inviting even. Yet now, even as it hung open, there was nothing beyond its borders. Levi hesitantly toed the edge and nearly fell in.

“We can’t get out!” Eren cried angrily.

Levi stared open mouthed at the abyss surrounding them.

“I thought I broke the curse…” he said as Eren wept bitterly. “But I just became trapped as well.”

<*>

Erwin hacked through the briars with his broadsword, his cape becoming attractively tangled in the process.

“How long do we have to watch him do this?” Hanji leaned over and asked Mike.

Mike only grunted in response. He liked watching Erwin be heroic. Finally he joined him and cut through the branch Erwin had been struggling with in one swift strike.

“The place looks abandoned,” Moblit, Hanji’s assistant, said surveying the scene.

“Don’t be so sure,” Hanji said, eyes alight.

They walked until they found a woman standing with a bucket of water balanced on her head.

“Excuse me madam,” Erwin said, sweeping into a bow.

When she didn’t turn to see his perfectly executed bow, he grew a little grumpy and walked around to her front.

“It’s a statue,” he said. “How odd.”

“It’s creepy,” said Petra, the healer they’d found along the way.

Silently Erwin agreed, but he had to be the leader of this outfit so he boldly continued forward. They swept the entire castle until Erwin found what he was looking for.

“Oh Captain,” Erwin said, putting his hand to his forehead.

They had found a statue of the Captain, only it appeared both the Captain and his partner were in the middle of something, their faces elated and blissful and definitely not to be disturbed.

“He looks happy,” Erwin said, daring to peek out from behind his gloved hand.

Mike bent down and picked up a book that had been tossed on the ground. Flipping through it, he pointed to page 33.

“What’s that? Oh that’s filthy,” Erwin said and waved Mike off.

Mike tapped the page again.

“Yes I see it, Mike. Hanji, you’re the wizard, what do you think caused this?”

“No idea,” Hanji said turning to Erwin with an unsettling manic grin.

Hanji began setting up several different instruments, pacing about. Petra covered the Captain and his lover so they might have some privacy. Mike was still avidly flipping through pages of the book.

“How does one become a wizard?” Erwin asked watching Hanji work, which looked a lot more like making a mess.

“You fill out a form, send it in the mail and then you get your wizard certification card,” Hanji said now sitting on a dresser and observing the statues.

“That sounds too easy! Then anyone could become a wizard!” Erwin said.

“Well, you have to know what the form is and where to send it,” Hanji said, cocking an eyebrow above their goggles. “And it is not always on this plane of reality.”

“Oh,” Erwin chirped. He gave Mike a significant glance which Mike returned by pointing at a page. “Yes yes, we’ll try it, but please, we have more pressing matters at hand.”

“Quiet please,” Hanji said, closing their eyes in concentration.

The party fell silent. Erwin folding his hands in front of him respectfully. Mike inspected his book. Hanji fiddled with a piece of string that attracted the gaze of a curious black cat. Finally after several moments of intense silence they spoke.

“The statues,” Hanji offered, sitting cross legged on the dresser. “Are a fixed point. They are here—“

Hanji fitted the string around their finger.

“And time is moving around them. It moves faster the further it passes from this point and then comes closer again. An hour to us might seem like months to them or a second to them might seem like days to us.”

As they spoke, Hanji moved the string further from their index finger and then out the other side.

“And then it circles back in an infinite loop. These people could have been here for years. Decades.”

“The Captain looks the same as he did twenty years ago,” Erwin pointed out.

“For him, it could have been a matter of days, maybe minutes,” Hanji said.

“So how do we…un-statue him?” Erwin asked.

“That is a good question,” Hanji said.

They all grew silent at this revelation. As Hanji thought intently they twirled the string around and around, the cat watching, its tail swishing interestedly. Hanji gaze a dramatic sigh and flung the string down and the cat pounced. So did Hanji.

“Gotchya,” Hanji said, holding the cat up by the scruff of its neck. “Tell me _witch_ , how do we break the curse?”

“The cat is a witch?” Erwin asked pointing at the hissing creature.

“Obviously,” said the cat in a low sardonic drawl.

Hanji looked very proud.

“What’s wrong with the people here?” Erwin asked it.

“Oh, it was silly, I…got into a little tiff with my lover—I was jealous—and I cursed her, she cursed me back, yada yada etcetera etcetera, lover’s spat you see.”

“How do we turn them back?” Hanji prompted.

“Someone needs to kiss the princess—and I would much prefer if that person were me—“ the cat snapped, flicking its tail haughtily. “But I need my human form back.”

Hanji narrowed their eyes behind their goggles. With one motion, she shook the cat and suddenly it was a freckled woman with dark hair standing in front of them.

“Oh that feels amazing,” Ymir stretched. “Right. Curse. Follow me.”

<*>

“I’m excited about leaving tomorrow,” Eren whispered into Levi’s ear. “I was thinking we could celebrate before we left.”

“I like that idea,” Levi said into his cup. “How were you thinking of celebrating?”

Eren didn’t answer but his mischievous expression was enough.

“Christa!” Ymir shouted entering the hall.

“That’s her!” Eren jumped up. “The witch!”

“Ymir,” Christa said coolly.

Ymir crossed the room, appearing to glide before them and stopped in front of Christa.

“Right, about what I said earlier,” Ymir struggled. “I’m…” She made a noise like she was hacking up a hairball. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”

Christa’s bright blue eyes widened.

“May I kiss you now?” Ymir asked, suddenly aware of all the eyes on them.

“Yes,” Christa said, her pink lips curling happily.

They kissed and to Erwin, Mike and Hanji it was like all of the statues suddenly came to life and appeared in front of them, but to Levi and Eren they could see the stars in the sky. It was as if the veil lifted and they could see everything.

“But I still don’t forgive you,” Christa said breaking from the kiss.

Ymirs eyebrows turned upward and then the black cat was back on the ground.

“You were very rude,” Christa told the cat.

“I need to see it!” Eren cried running out of the castle.

He ran and Levi chased after him.

“Look Levi!” Eren called, standing on the other side of the gates holding his arms up to the sky. “It’s gone! The curse is lifted!”

Levi ran to him and they held each other. They broke and Levi cupped his beautiful face.

“We can do it, we can leave here!” Eren said excitedly.

Everyone from the castle ran outside the castle walls excitedly, singing and dancing.

“I remember now,” Erwin said looking around as Christa walked up to him holding the black cat in her arms. “The people of Sina Keep were the Lenz family. Rumor has it that the late King Reiss had an illegitimate daughter he sent here.”

“What of my father?” Christa asked.

“Well, you’ve been here nearly one hundred years, Lady Historia,” Erwin informed her. “Your father has long since passed and the kingdom is in stewardship…so that would make you the next in line.”

She looked up at him, pressing her lips to the purring cat’s whiskers.

“My Queen.” Erwin bowed dramatically.

“This was the best birthday gift you’ve ever given me,” Historia told the cat. “My own kingdom!”

“Captain Levi,” said the healer, nervously twisting her green robes. “Do you remember me? You used to bounce me on your knee when I was just a girl.”

Levi looked her over and it took him a moment before comprehension dawned. The little girl who used to tug at his beard was standing in front of him fully grown.

“Petra!” he exclaimed and she beamed before being swept away by one of the horsehands to dance in a jig.

Eren laughed and pressed his forehead against Levi’s as Levi tugged on the key around Eren’s neck.

“You can remove that now,” he said, brushing his hands over Eren’s cheek.

“I don’t think I want to, I think I want to remember this moment and you forever,” Eren said, bending down to kiss him.

They were interrupted by Erwin.

“Captain!” Erwin called to Levi.

“Erwin! You’re…old,” Levi said flatly looking up at him.

“And you’re…you,” Erwin said, his hand going to his perfect hair vainly.

“This is Eren,” Levi nodded at the younger man holding him. “He wants to be a knight.”

“I think we can accommodate that,” said Erwin.

Eren laughed and held Levi.

“I’m collecting the best and the brightest to join me on an adventure,” Erwin informed Levi. “And I want you to join me.”

Levi was unsure. The time he had spent with Eren, frolicking in the grass, taking long baths, enjoying the sweet peaceful life—

“What kind of quest?” Eren asked eagerly.

“The kind that has glory,” Erwin said, leaning in to Eren, then to Levi, “And riches.”

Eren and Levi shared a look.

“We’re in,” they chorused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had waaay too much fun writing this. I'm so sad to see it's over already. I hope y'all liked it and I hope you check out my other fics or come bug me on my tumblr! Please, if you haven't already, leave kudos and/or comments!


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